Den Haag Centraal: Training sights on uniform light

Ludwig Leuchten developed a conduit system for luminaires, technology for loudspeakers and an emergency lighting system for Den Haag Central.

Conduit system for luminaires, technology for loudspeakers and an emergency lighting system

The property. Den Haag Centraal is the main station in The Hague and the biggest terminus in the Netherlands. In total, it has twelve tracks and seven platforms, making it one of the country’s main railway hubs. The station underwent an extension, overhaul and general refurbishments in a project that lasted from 2012 until the official reopening in 2015.

The brief. There were strict lighting requirements for the seven platforms: there should be no glare, neither for train drivers entering the station nor for waiting passengers. Luminaires had to be able to deal with saltwater condensation and strong winds coming in from the nearby coast. To keep costs resulting from platform closures to an absolute minimum, the time window for fitting lights was limited to 48 hours, on weekends only.

Intelligent conduit system for loudspeakers and emergency lighting

The solution. Ludwig Leuchten developed a conduit system using 400-millimetre pipes. This not only integrates asymmetrical indirect luminaires, but also technology for the loudspeakers, an emergency lighting system and fire detectors. To make it possible to adapt the intensity of illumination individually, all luminaires use LED technology with DALI controls. Compared to traditional T5 systems, this reduces electricity consumption by almost 35 per cent.

The lighting solution provided by Ludwig Leuchten was specially developed to ensure the luminaires achieve an efficiency rating of over 90 per cent. Surfaces are used to reflect diffused light and LED light is trained asymmetrically onto the platforms to provide uniform light right up to the platform edge. This also ensures that train drivers and passengers aren’t subjected to glare. Ludwig Leuchten used its own in-house laboratories in Mering to put the lighting system through a battery of rigorous tests, covering flame resistance, resistance to strong winds and gusts, resistance to salt water mist – all passed with flying colours.

One particular challenge for the technicians was the best way to install no less than 1300 metres of conduits along the seven platforms. Each lighting module is 2.74 metres long and had to be suspended exactly 3.5 metres above the edge of each platform. This was to ensure that the illumination was totally uniform along the entire platform area. The Ludwig Leuchten fitters solved the problem by developing a special hitch system. Finally, the Ludwig Leuchten technicians came in and programmed the entire system to get everything up and running.